Chuck Kutscher, a University of Colorado at Boulder faculty member, as well as a CU-Boulder alumnus and principal engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, has been selected to receive the Governor's Excellence in Renewable Energy Award for 2008 for his outstanding contributions to protect Colorado's environment and provide clean power through renewable energy.
Kutscher, who received the award in the individual category, has been a committed advocate for renewable energy technologies as an employee of NREL for over 30 years. He has worked in a variety of areas in renewable energy, including solar cooling technologies, solar industrial process heat, geothermal energy and concentrating solar power. He is currently a principal engineer at NREL and group manager for the Thermal Systems Group.
He led the study "Tackling Climate Change in the U.S." published by the American Solar Energy Society in 2007 to raise public awareness about the serious dilemma of global warming and to offer practical energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions that can effectively reduce U.S. carbon emissions over the next two decades.
He teaches the mechanical engineering course "Climate Change Solutions" as an adjunct professor at CU-Boulder. He is a frequent speaker about climate change and renewable energy on campus, and also serves on the mechanical engineering department's Industrial Advisory Council.
He earned his doctorate in mechanical engineering at CU-Boulder in 1992.